


Hustle, Hit and Never Quit

by edochen



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 20:02:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1830517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edochen/pseuds/edochen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard McCoy believes Jim Kirk to be nothing short of an asshole. The typical frat douchebag who has had so much praise in his years as a football player he's completely lost his sense of reality. In turn, Jim Kirk doesn't want to leave the co-captain of the cheerleading team alone. Of course this all sorts itself out eventually. A College AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hustle, Hit and Never Quit

>>>1<<<

Uhura had been apprehensive at first, it was his last year after all, but Leonard insisted. She held two majors for god’s sake, and if she could be in the linguistics club, run track, be captain of the cheerleading team _and_ maintain a 4.0 GPA, Leonard knew he could do this for her.

It was only three months in when he messed up for the first time. He was fifteen minutes late. An accident at a car junction, ten cars involved. There were five people in the ICU and Leonard had had the chance to work alongside Philip Boyce in the operating room. He hadn’t said no and it had definitely been worth it. 

He wouldn’t tell Uhura that, even though she’d understand. There were no excuses for being late at practice, even more so for the co-captain.

He changed into his cheer uniform in the hospital changing room and ran to the soccer pitch to get a head-start on his warm-up. When he arrived Uhura had already begun with the standard drills.

“You’re late, Leo,” she said, her voice stern but not angry.

“I’m sorry, just give me ten minutes to stretch,” Leonard replied as he stumbled to the bleachers trying to walk and pull on his shoes at the same time. He threw his bag under a chair and caught his breath. He hated running.

“You seem a little winded, Bones.”

Leonard didn’t need to look up to know who _that_ was. There was only one person in the entire world who called him Bones, and that person had the uncanny ability of ruining Leonard’s day.

James Kirk was a stereotypical jock douchebag. He had a sports scholarship and _boy_ , did everyone know how the university had fought tooth and nail to get _him_ on the team.

Leonard knew everyone on the football team, being a cheerleader and all, but he would’ve known Jim regardless. Jim liked to be known, lived off being noticed. He oozed cockiness and had no qualms with using his reputation as golden boy to get what he wanted.

He was shirtless, stretched out on the seats of the stands as if he was lying on the beach. He wore tinted sunglasses  and Leonard swore that even the way he ate his popsicle was the epitome of arrogance.

“Don’t you have practice,” Leonard said, squinting his eyes against the sunrays to look up at Jim.

“Pulled a muscle,” Jim said after pulling his popsicle out with a loud smack of his lips. “Pike told me to take it easy. I’d much rather watch cheer practice than that sausage-fest on the football field.” He chomped the top of his popsicle off and grinned while he crunched it to bits.

Leonard scowled. Unfortunately the soccer fields were free access outside of practice hours so Leonard couldn’t make Jim leave. Judging by the look Jim was giving him, he was very much aware of that.

“As long as you shut up,” Leonard grumbled at Jim. Jim pretended to zip and lock his mouth shut, then he winked. Leonard rolled his eyes and turned his back to him so he could pretend he wasn’t there.

Leonard did the same warm-up every day, something he’d designed for the entire team to prevent injury during practice. He easily rolled his shoulders back and felt the tension of a hard day’s work disappear. He watched the team during their tumbling exercises; synchronized backflips, aerials and hand-springs. It had taken Uhura and him considerable effort but they’d really gotten the team together in the last two months. Most freshmen who tried out for college cheerleading were already great gymnasts to begin with but the first months of practice usually consisted of relearning the basics. Just knowing how to do a backflip wasn’t enough, they had to learn how to do the _same_ backflip at exactly the same time.

Only then would they have a shot at winning this year’s UCA College Cheerleading Championship.

Utterly relaxed, Leonard’s mind wandered as he let his legs slip out from under him. He fell gently into a straddle split then reached forward to rest on his upper arms and yawned. He was hardly aware of it when he stretched out fully and let his chest reach all the way down to the ground.

He managed to hold it for two long breaths when he heard a sound that made him shoot back up and pull his legs together.

Leonard whipped his head back and saw Jim sitting upright chewing on his Popsicle stick with a phone in his hand aimed at him.

“Did you just take a fucking picture?” Leonard asked in disbelief.

Jim did not look up from his phone. “I recorded it,” he said. “Never saw you do that, Bones. It’s fucking hot.”

“Delete it.”

Jim scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

“Goddammit Jim, you’re such a fucking—” Leonard grabbed the first thing within reach, one of his own shoes, and threw it straight at Jim’s face.

Jim dodged it by leaning to the left without even standing up from his seat.

Leonard considered throwing the other shoe, but knew that it would inconvenience himself more than it would Jim. “If you show anyone that, Jim, I swear to god,” he said instead, aggressively pointing his finger at Jim.

Jim laughed and leaned forward, arms resting on his knees. “Relax, it’ll be for my personal enjoyment only.”

Leonard yanked his bag from under one of the chairs of the stands, he was furious. “You’re an asshole, Jim,” he said, before stalking away towards the team.

By the end of practice, Jim was long gone but his shoe was placed neatly on a chair on the front row. It didn’t matter, Jim was still and asshole.

>>>>2<<<<

Uhura and Leonard always held their meetings in one of the cafeterias. It was something of a tradition of their predecessors to mix business with food and was especially convenient for Uhura whose busy schedule already made for a lack of time.

Lunch was the only thing Uhura was ever late for, and Leonard was already eating when she walked up to their usual table and flopped her bag on a chair.

“Leonard,” she said, sitting down on the chair next to it. “I have _exactly_ twenty-five minutes for this and lunch. So let me jump right in.” She pulled a large folder from her bag and shoved it towards Leonard, sitting opposite of her. “I need you to take over the juniors for me. They are killing me right now. Janice’s toe-touch is an _abomination_ and if I see M’Benga mess up one more dance combination I will personally punch him in the throat.”  

Leonard quietly took the plate of French fries from his own tray and put it next to Uhura’s salad. “Calm down, Nyota,” he said. “I’ll talk to Janice, and I’ve been working with the guys.”

“You are a godsend,” Uhura said, grabbing four fries at the same time and using her other hand to give Leonard her salad. “The team’s really giving it their all this year and I’m proud of them, but I just think we can do better, you know?”

Leonard picked an olive from his salad and placed it on a napkin. “I know, I think so too.”

“So you don’t think I’m crazy?” Uhura asked.

Leonard grinned. “Well, that’s neither here, nor there.” He winced when Uhura kicked his shin under the table.

“Play nice,” he said, before taking a bite from his salad. He heard a faint buzzing coming from his bag, his phone, but chose to ignore it. It had been the dozenth time that day and he knew exactly who was calling.

He didn’t know who gave Jim his number, probably someone from the team, but he knew he had to establish some ground rules with people regarding his personal information.

He was doing a rather good job at ignoring his phone altogether while he discussed the possibility of a last minute bootcamp with Uhura. 

“It’ll have to be three days, though,” Leonard thought aloud. “Two days is not enough because—”

His phone vibrated again.

“Excuse me,” Leonard said to Uhura, and he turned to grab his bag from the floor. 

“Thought I told you to stop calling me,” Leonard groused through the phone when he answered it.

 _“I wouldn’t even have to call if you would answer my texts.”_ Jim said on the other end of the line, just as annoyed.

“I’m not answering your texts because I don’t want to talk to you.”

_“Don’t be like that. I feel bad about the other day, and I want to make it up to you. That’s the only reason I asked Carol for your phone number.”_

Leonard grimaced. Carol Marcus, that _ingrate_ , he’d fought to get her on the team and in response she’d just thrown him under a bus. He looked at Uhura who was eating Leonard’s fries with a mildly amused expression on her face.

 _“So there’s this monthly quiz over at the Pioneer and I thought you and I could go. You know, like a fresh start. Because, and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, I get the feeling you don’t like me very much,”_ Jim continued. 

“You hit the nail right on the head, kid” Leonard muttered back. “And I ain’t goin anywhere with you.”

_“Ah come on, Bonesy. It’ll be fun. Uhura’s coming too.”_

Apparently Uhura heard that, and she laughed which Leonard answered with a glare. “No, she’s not.”

 _“Yes she is. Give her the phone for a second.”_  

Leonard handed his phone to Uhura.  “It’s for you.”

Uhura took the phone and clenched it between her ear and shoulder so she could put the folder back into her bag. “Hey, Jim. Uhhuh, yeah, uhhuh, all right.” Then she handed the phone back to Leonard and said “I’m going to the Pioneer tonight, Leonard.”

Leonard put the phone back to his ear.

 _“See? Now you’re just going to be a total buzzkill if you refuse,”_ Jim said triumphantly. 

“Give me a sec,” he sniped through the phone and gave Uhura a scrutinizing look. “What’s your game, Nyota?” he asked.

Uhura shrugged. “Spock’s going.”

Leonard sighed. “Unbelievable.” Then he directed his attention back to his phone conversation. “All right, _fine_.”

_“That’s the spirit. I’ll pick you up at seven.”_

“You’ll pick the both of us up. With a _car_ , not that deathtrap motorcycle of yours.”

 _“Sure, whatever, see you at seven.”_ Jim hung up the phone in Leonard’s ear and Leonard shoved the phone back into his bag.

“Happy now?” Leonard said when he saw how entertained Uhura was by all this. She shrugged and took another fry between her fingers. Leonard took the plate from Uhura’s tray and placed it back on his own.

“Yeah, no more fries for you.”

“Hey!”

>>>>3<<<<

Jim picked Uhura and Leonard up at exactly seven ‘o clock. This was because Spock was at the wheel and had nothing to do with Jim’s sense of punctuality.

To be fair, Leonard had to give Jim at least some credit. He cleaned up nicely in a red plaid button up and dark chinos and he had even ditched his sunglasses so that people could see his eyes.

Jim’s eyes were as blue as a Mykonos sky. Jim was very much aware of that, which ruined most of its charm but didn’t make them any less blue.

No one cleaned up as nicely as Uhura though. Like Jim she knew she was hot but Uhura was classy about it, she had grace. When Jim whistled when she walked out the door with her navy blue shift dress on she only smiled knowingly, nothing more.

She walked up to the car and Spock stopped the engine just so he could kiss Uhura and open the passenger door for her.

For all Uhura’s accomplishments and beauty, Leonard believed she had piss-poor taste when it came to men. Spock was a computer science major, a chess grandmaster, and the quarterback of their college football team.

He was also the single strangest man Leonard had ever met. He was impassive to borderline socially challenged, and never smiled. Uhura had once remarked that Leonard also never smiled, but that was different. Leonard _chose_ not to smile whereas Spock was probably incapable of doing so. 

Leonard hadn’t the heart to tell Uhura she could do better. Hell, for Uhura, Spock was probably the best.

Leonard was still standing in the doorway watching the entire scene when he realized Jim was giving him the once over. “Hey, you look good too,” Jim said with a grin.

Leonard closed the door behind him and walked to the car. “Don’t pander.”

Leonard had never been to the Pioneer, but knowing Jim he expected it to be a frat house away from campus. He was pleasantly surprised to find out he was wrong. The Pioneer was an old speakeasy that played old jazz tunes and had a mellow atmosphere. It was dimly lit and soft-spoken, and the crowd was closer to Leonard’s age than they were to Jim’s which was always a plus.

“Find us a table, I’ll sign us up,” Jim said, and he walked towards the bar.

Uhura chose their table, in the middle so they had a nice overview of the entire room. In the car Jim had explained a little about the quiz they were about to participate in. It was a monthly event, and had the reputation of being rather difficult. Most participants played every month, were graduates, and had their own table. Leonard had already noticed the place cards on two tables, that of the The Melifluous Masterminds and The Miracle Workers.

When Jim came back he had a bottle of wine wedged between his thumb and index finger and three glasses in his hands. He also had a bottle of ginger ale and a bell under his arm.

“This is our buzzer,” he said, placing all the items on the table except for the bell which he rung demonstratively. “We didn’t think of a name so we’re ‘table seven’.”

Less than fifteen minutes later the game was afoot.  

Jim had not exaggerated when he talked about the high difficulty of the questions, and Leonard had been of little help. Most of the answers were given by Spock and Uhura, who were almost single-handedly getting them into the top three. Spock in particular seemed to have an encyclopedia hidden between those big ears of his.

Jim hardly tried to answer anything, though Leonard soon realized it wasn’t because Jim didn’t know any answers. When a girl from The Miracle Workers said that fourteen A was the rating of a standard brown domestic plug fuse, Jim winced, rung the bell and said: “ _thirteen_ A.” This was apparently correct.

Despite the difficulty of the questions and the competitiveness of the contestants the game was still fun. They drank alcohol and playfully booed each other whenever they had an answer right. In the end they tied with the Melifluous Masterminds for first place, which made for a decisive ‘math-in-your-head’ round, where both teams could choose their opponents.

The Masterminds had huddled together for less than a second before saying: “We pick the blonde guy.”

Uhura convinced them to pick a guy with glasses as their opponent. To Leonard he looked like the poster boy for the white-and-nerdy trope but Uhura was certain they were non-prescription glasses and that the guy was in fact a hipster. They took her word for it.

When Jim and the apparent hipster had their hands hovering over their bells their ‘quizmaster’ asked his questions.

The Masterminds had placed their bet on the wrong horse. Jim not only answered every question correctly, but he also managed to do it so quickly his opponent hardly had time to breathe.

Leonard, who was never much of a mathematician, looked at Spock who nodded in agreement every time Jim answered. Knowing he’d decimated their opponent, Jim just shrugged and drank his root beer.

It was the classiest Leonard had ever seen him.  

They left the bar with their tiny plastic trophies in hand and their own inflatable travel pillows. Uhura stumbled a bit when they walked outside, more from fatigue than from the wine but Spock still held her hand as they walked to the car. He helped her into the back seat where he joined her.

Jim, as the designated driver, took the wheel and Leonard sat next to him and looked through the rear-view mirror.

Uhura and Spock were snuggled together against one of the car doors. Uhura had kicked off her heels and Spock had wrapped his jacket around her. She was falling asleep and Spock tried to stay perfectly still, only moving to brush away a tuft of hair from Uhura’s forehead.

Leonard was impressed by Spock’s courteous behavior.  

Jim also glanced into the mirror and when he saw Uhura he flipped the car radio off before backing up out of the parking lot. It was a quiet car ride besides Jim’s absent humming of popular pop songs. A warm breeze flew in from the open window on Leonard’s side, and somewhere along the way Leonard lulled into a light sleep as well, opening his eyes every now and then when they stopped at a traffic light.

He yawned and sat upright when the interior lights of the car lit up. They were at Uhura’s dorm and Leonard watched how Uhura, still wrapped in Spock’s jacket and barefoot, was escorted to the door by her boyfriend.

There was just enough light by the door for Leonard to see that Spock kissed her. First a peck on the lips and then, as if changing his mind, a slower, sweeter one. Leonard smiled, he couldn’t help it; he was a total sap when it came to the happiness of his friends.

“You know, that could be us. But you playing.”

Jim had hauled himself over the center console just so he could get a closer look at Uhura and Spock.

Leonard frowned and shrugged to push him away. “Sit down.”

“Ah, come on,” Jim said, but he sat back into the driver’s seat. “You’ve got to admit, I’ve been doing a good job so far.”

Leonard turned away from the window to look at Jim. “A good job with what?”

“Making you like me,” Jim said.

Leonard scoffed. “Oh _, that’s_ what you’re doing.”

Jim mimicked the sound. “ _Duh_.”

Leonard ignored Jim and turned his attention back to Spock and Uhura. They were wrapped in each other’s arms and talking quietly, forgetting all about the fact that Leonard was waiting in the car. He wanted to snap them out of it by gently pushing the car horn but Jim stopped his hand before he reached it.

“Let them have their moment,” Jim said with a low voice. “I’ll drive you home.” He turned the key in the ignition and drove away.

“What about Spock?” Leonard asked, craning his neck to watch, but Spock hadn’t moved an inch from the spot by the front door.

“What about ‘m?” Jim said and then he laughed. “Trust me, I’m doing them a favor. They don’t know how to unwind unless you force them to and sex is a great way to unwind. Don’t you think so?”

Leonard scowled. “Bring me home, Jim.”

“Sure thing, Bones.” 

They drove silently for a couple more minutes until they were at Leonard’s apartment. Leonard was already reaching for the handle of the door when he realized it was bad manners to just make a bolt for his room. So he turned to Jim, forced a facsimile smile, and said “Thanks, I had a good time Jim.”

“I know you did,” Jim answered with such a smug tone that Leonard instantly regretted his attempt to be polite. Then Jim stretched himself exorbitantly and yawned. “So, are you going to invite me in for a cup of coffee?”

“ _Unbelievable._ ” Leonard made a frustrated noise before stepping out of the car and slamming the door. “ _Goodbye_ , Jim,” he said through the still open window. Then he walked away.

He still heard Jim through the window. “Walk away all you want, Bones,” he said. “I can tell I’m wearing you down.”

Leonard may have smiled a little before he entered his house, but he’d never admit it. 

>>>>4<<<<

For the last couple of days Leonard had been dragging himself out of bed at the crack of dawn put on his running gear and ran around campus.

It took one casual mention to Uhura a week ago that he thought about running and her eyes lit up like stars. She had emailed him a detailed training schedule the morning after. Leonard didn’t have the heart not to use it.

Leonard wasn’t a morning person and even though he had no problem with exercise he never understood why there were people who enjoyed pointlessly running around in circles as fast as they could. In his opinion it was just dull and surprisingly difficult.

He did see improvement though, and that ultimately kept him going. It was his last round, he was about two minutes faster than he was three days ago and he even had some energy to spare.

Energy which he felt was steadily being sucked from his body when Jim appeared out of nowhere.

“Good morning, Bones,” he said cheerfully.

“Didn’t know you ran here,” Leonard said, with the little breath he had to spare for their conversation.

“I don’t,” Jim answered, following in Leonard’s pace with considerably less effort. “But I just did my 10k and wondered how you were doing with Uhura’s workout program.”

“She told you?” Leonard asked.

“Spock and Uhura wrote it together for you,” Jim said. “It was very romantic. For them.”

Leonard made a face. He passed the bench looking over the soccer field which meant he only had about two kilometers left.

“So, how’ve you been?” I haven’t really spoken to you since our date,” Jim said.

“That was _not_ a date,” Leonard replied.

“You’re right,” Jim said, and he skipped a couple of steps. “We didn’t make out.”

Leonard groaned, he picked up the pace knowing he was almost there, and used most of his excess energy to run away from Jim. Jim easily caught up with him.

“It’s so cute that you think you can outrun a wide receiver.”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Leonard complained, but he couldn’t move any faster and he was starting to get a cramp in his side.

Meanwhile, Jim wasn’t breaking a sweat. “What’re you doing this afternoon?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Jim chuckled. “If you’re not going to tell me, I’m going to find out anyway.”

“Well then, happy hunting,” Leonard said. Finally reaching the end point he stopped and looked at his time. It was his fastest yet.

Jim looked over Leonard’s shoulder, getting way too close for Leonard’s taste. “Not bad,” he said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have class. I’ll see you in the afternoon.”

“I said don’t worry about it,” Leonard called after him and Jim waved his hand to show he’d heard. 

>>>5<<<

Every year the cheerleading team held a car wash for charity.

In short, this meant girls in bikinis and boys in matching swim trunks. Needless to say, they were always a big hit.

They had picked a good day, hot but not unbearably so. Leonard still upheld a strict ‘no sunscreen, no play’ policy though and he was running around with a spray bottle of factor SPF 40 holstered around his waist like a gun.

He didn’t have much time to scope out his sun-burned teammates though. They had convinced the local newspaper to print an advertisement, something they hadn’t done last year and it really showed at the turn up.

The parking lot they used was completely occupied and they had to whip together a quick system in an attempt to pick up the pace.

It was hard work but also a lot of fun. They tried to keep it fun anyway, because that’s why most men and women came to these car washes in the first place: ‘To watch a bunch of babes bending over their hood and getting all hot and wet for them’. Gaila’s exact words.

Leonard didn’t care much as long as they paid up.

The number of women in line this year was staggering, and Leonard had a couple of tips inappropriately pushed down his trunks by pretty looking soccer moms with long manicured finger nails. The kind of women who had rich husbands and pool boys who did more than clean the skimmer baskets. Some of them even gave him their phone number, but he threw them away first chance he had.

Gaila tried to smuggle a couple of numbers of her own into her jacket but Leonard wouldn’t let her. When she complained about it he just sprayed her down with sunscreen and directed her towards the paying booth while she was still spitting out the bitter taste on her tongue.  

They’d been two hours in when Jim came driving up the parking lot with roaring engines, his conspicuous motorcycle between his legs and his trusty sunglasses on his nose. He ignored the line of waiting cars and drove up to Leonard, who was on hosing duty.

“Told you I’d find you,” Jim said, after turning off the engine.

“Ain’t I lucky,” Leonard said sarcastically. He nudged to Jim’s motorcycle. “This is a _car_ wash, Jim. That’s not a car.”

Jim pulled his motorcycle on its kickstand. “You treat all paying customers this way?”

Leonard raised an eyebrow. “How much did you pay?” he asked.

Jim shrugged. “Like, two dollars and a piece of gum.”

“It’s fifteen dollars for a car wash,” Leonard said, and he pointed at one of the many signs hanging around the parking lot.

“But this is _not_ a car,” Jim said, pointing at Leonard with a wink.  

Leonard glanced at Jim before grabbing the spraying hose. He pulled the handle and drenched the seat and side of the motorcycle, spraying Jim, who was still sitting on it, at the same time. “There,” he said with a smile.  “That’s about two dollars’ worth.”

Jim pressed his lips together and looked both annoyed and amused while he pulled his shirt off and dropped it to the ground like a wet mop. “Ha. Ha,” he said. “If you wanted me to take my clothes off you could’ve just asked.”

Leonard snorted. “Sure, Jim.” He didn’t even have to move his eyes down to look at Jim’s bare chest. Jim ditched that shirt almost every chance he got and as far as Leonard was concerned he was completely chest-sated. “If you’re planning to stay here I suggest you grab a bucket and stop wasting my time. We’re undermanned as it is.”

“I know, Uhura called me,” Jim said. He pulled off his sunglasses. “I asked some of the guys to help out.”

With ‘some of the guys’ Jim apparently meant the entire football team. It took them a total of twenty minutes to show up, and a little over ten minutes to start pulling their weight. Hikaru Sulu, the running back, had placed a couple of signs along the road to advertise and Spock, who had shown up pasty white from sunblock factor ‘a thousand’, had joined Uhura at the paying booth.

Within an hour, the number of cars waiting in line had doubled.

“Impressed?” Jim asked. He had a sponge in his hand and surprisingly did actually wash a car or two when he wasn’t having water fights with Gaila.

Leonard pressed an empty bucket against Jim. “Refill this, will ya?” he said.

Jim grinned but obediently took the bucket, threw his sponge in and walked away. He held his arms up to flex his muscles and a couple of cars sounded their horns in appreciation.

Hours later when Spock was counting the profit, Jim showed up with about a hundred dollars’ worth of tips in his pockets. This was a record for the men but was still peanuts compared to the two-hundred bucks Gaila showed up with.

Gaila hadn’t washed a single car.

After counting, Spock gave Uhura the thumbs up, which was the most elated Leonard had ever seen Spock.

They made four times the amount of money they’d made last year.

“Are you impressed now?” Jim asked again, when they were cleaning up the parking lot.

“Yeah, alright kid.” Leonard admitted. “I’m impressed.”

Jim invited the entire cheerleading team over to their dorm to celebrate. Some of the guys on the football team lived together at a private dorm house owned by Spock’s father, a wealthy diplomat. It was a white mansion with a big patio and a pool. All the students on campus knew about it, which could be interpreted in a number of ways.

Leonard wouldn’t have gone at all if Uhura wasn’t making him. She told him it was the least he could do after their helping out, and that it would be fun.

 _Fun_.

_Hah!_

Leonard felt more like a babysitter. He insisted everyone had a ‘buddy’ so that none of the girls had to walk back to their dorm alone. He also tried to be everywhere at once; making sure his team was behaving and not getting too drunk.

Most of the partygoers had gathered in the living room or outside by the pool which gave Leonard a good overview. Uhura and Spock were nowhere to be seen, early in the evening they had retreated to Spock’s room doing…well Leonard didn’t want to think about _what_ they were doing.

He was walking towards the kitchen while giving a guy who was leering at Gaila the most threatening look he could manage. Jim was at the kitchen counter, and when he saw Leonard he turned and smiled.  

“There you are, Bones,” he said enthusiastically. He was holding a bottle of whiskey in his hand. “I was looking all over for you.”

He shoved the bottle into Leonard’s hands and turned around to grab two large plastic cups from a stack. Leonard opened the bottle and poured a generous amount of whiskey in them. Jim handed him one and held his own up in a toast. “Bottoms up,” he said before emptying the cup in one go.

Leonard let out a laugh in surprise.

Jim sucked in some air behind his teeth with a grimace. “Man, that’s strong.”

“You drink it slowly,” Leonard said. “When it’s a good bourbon.”

“This is _cheap_ scotch, Bones.”

Leonard gave him a look but met his challenge by emptying his own cup in one go. He grimaced at the taste.

“It’s horrible isn’t it?” Jim said cheerfully. “Scotty brought it from the AV club along with the audio equipment.”

Leonard had seen Montgomery Scott set up a surround sound system around the pool. Leonard didn’t know a whole lot about Scott, but he _did_ know he wasn’t a member of the AV club.

“He oughta bring it back.”

“Picky, picky,” Jim tutted with a smirk, but he put down his cup and grabbed himself a can of beer from the cooking island. He offered one to Leonard who shook his head and held up the bottle of whiskey in his hand.

“I’ll take my chances with this.”

With that Leonard made his way back to the pool, drinking the whiskey away like water. Somewhere along the way he filled his cup to the brim with the cheap alcohol and dumped the almost-empty bottle. He needed a lot more alcohol if he were going to enjoy this particular party.

In the backyard he sat down next to Carol Marcus, who was sitting alone, dangling her legs in the pool.

Carol Marcus was a junior and the newest addition to the cheerleading team. She was a physics major and sharp as a tack, but shy and still getting used to life at college away from home. She looked relieved when Leonard joined her and offered him some of his drink.

“Thanks,” she said, taking the cup and, underestimating its content, coughed with tears in her eyes when she tasted it.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked her, or rather yelled at her. Montgomery Scott had just turned the sound system on and a bunch of LED lights began shining up and down the exterior of the house.

Marcus forced a smile. “Yeah,” she said. “I am.”

Leonard wrapped an arm around her shoulder and shook her gently. “Alright then.”

They shared his whiskey, though Leonard made sure she wasn’t drinking too much of it. He compensated by drinking most of it himself. He talked with Marcus about inane things until they were laughing and leaning into each other, the cup between them.

Across from them Leonard could see Jim making a handstand and walking along the length of the pool until Sulu tipped him over with a slap to the knees. Jim rolled forward, turned around and pulled Sulu into a bear hug so tight it had to hurt.

“He’s really different than I thought he’d be,” Marcus said. When Leonard turned to her he realized she was talking about Jim. “I mean, he seems so…” Marcus continued, thinking aloud. “But he’s more, considerate, I think?” She concluded a little unsure, then she turned to Leonard. “Don’t you think so, Leonard?”

She looked at Leonard expectantly and Leonard’s gaze shifted between her and Jim. “Well,” he started. Only he didn’t get to finish his thought as they were both shoved into the pool.

They immediately came back up, sputtering water. Leonard, pissed off and soaking wet, pulled himself out. Marcus, who was shivering, flopped on the edge next to him. There was a dry towel on a chair close to Leonard and he handed it to her. He pulled his wet hair back and looked around, trying to find the culprit who had just inadvertently murdered the phone in his pocket. Only the loud music, the flashing lights and the alcohol in his system made it hard to make out anything and he quickly gave up.

“I’m getting another towel,” he told Marcus, who was drying herself off. He walked back into the house, dripping everywhere, and found Gaila in the kitchen making out with a guy he didn’t know. He shoved the guy back by his forehead to catch Gaila’s attention. “Carol’s by the pool, take care of her,” he told her, and she nodded and without giving the guy a second look moved out of the house into the backyard.

“What the fuck, dude?” the guy said, who, now that Leonard bothered to notice was about twice Leonard’s size.

Leonard didn’t care much. “Too bad,” he said, meeting the guy’s glare. “Go jerk it off, or something.”

Without fearing the consequences of his words for a split second he stumbled away, soaking wet, to the bathroom on the first floor.

He clumsily flicked on the lights and found a pile of towels on a shelf by the window. He grabbed one from the top, but they still all tumbled down into a messy heap.

He dried his hair and looked at his reflection in the mirror. His still slightly damp hair stuck out all over the place in messy tufts, and he looked as tired and wet as he felt. He couldn’t do much about the tiredness, as for the wetness, he pulled off his shirt and lowered his shorts and dried himself all over. With his shorts at his ankles he clumsily turned so he could glance out of the window looking over the backyard.

The music outside was outrageously loud, and the lights Scott had installed shone in and outside the bathroom like a searchlight, bathing Leonard’s skin in blue, green and red. Outside, Gaila’s voice sometimes managed to get louder than the speakers now and then as she belted out the lyrics of her favorite songs.

Leonard hoisted himself up so he could sit on the table part of the vanity sink, his wet pants still hanging by his calves. He reached down to pull his phone out, took a glance at it and then flicked it into the sink, it was probably dead anyway.

It was the loud music, the alcohol and those ridiculous lights outside that made that he hadn’t noticed the door opening. In fact, Leonard felt quite content staring at the pants trying to decide whether he wanted to pull them off or not.

But the music calmed for a second and Jim said: ‘Sorry’ and Leonard had heard.

Judging by the surprised look on Jim’s face it wasn’t likely that he had followed Leonard, and for a second he stood in the doorway considering whether he should leave or stay.

When Leonard realized he hoped it was the latter he had a fleeting thought of ‘I am _so_ very drunk’, which was quickly substituted with a serious case of ‘the stupid’.

“Close the door,” he said and he kicked one of the pant legs off his feet. Jim closed and locked the door, turned off the useless light in the room and let the neon-green light from outside wash over them both.

Slowly Jim approached him and Leonard wasn’t sure if he was hesitating or trying to be sexy, but it _felt_ frustrating. When Jim found his way to the sink, he put his hands on Leonard’s side, his thumbs tracing up and down his sides as he nestled himself between Leonard’s legs and boldly wedged his thigh dangerously close to Leonard’s sweet spot. Leonard groaned appreciatively. So not hesitant, _sexy_.

Leonard pulled Jim closer by his short hair, pulled hard enough so it would hurt. Jim winced and Leonard wanted to make it absolutely clear that he intended that so he pulled again with a smirk.

If Jim had smirked back it was only for a second before he pressed forward and closed the little distance still left between them.

It was a good kiss, a bit sloppy because of Leonard’s heavy tongue, but good. Jim easily took control, dug his fingers into Leonard’s thighs and pulled him closer to the edge of the vanity and to the warmth of his skin. Leonard gasped into Jim’s mouth when his crotch connected to his chest and moaned when Jim rolled his entire body up to create a delicious friction.

His hands were drawing circles and pinching the tight skin over Leonard’s pelvis before hooking into the elastic band of Leonard’s briefs. Jim grinded up again, sending shivers down Leonard’s spine, and had an almost painful grip on Leonard’s hips for more leverage. Leonard shifted a little, the edge of the vanity digging uncomfortably into his skin.

Jim growled and put him back in place with rough hands. He was lucky Leonard was horny as hell, otherwise that shit wouldn’t have flown with him. Now, the aggressive manhandling was kind of hot, as were the trail of suck and bite marks Jim was leaving on Leonard’s body from his neck all the way down to his collarbone.

Jim’s hands were still in Leonard’s elastic band but didn’t move until Leonard guided them down. Jim didn’t bother pulling the briefs off entirely, just pulled Leonard’s dick out and let the elastic snap back over Leonard’s balls. Then Jim reached over Leonard’s shoulder and grabbed something, definitely not lube but something musk-scented, coated his hand with it and grabbed the base of Leonard’s cock. He squeezed twice experimentally, fascinated by Leonard’s encouraging response.

Leonard awkwardly hunched over so he could kiss Jim and sucked at his lower lip as Jim started pumping.

“Fuck,” Leonard cursed inside Jim’s mouth before Jim pulled free and began mirroring the trail of hickeys he’d made on Leonard on the other side of his chest. It was messy and the way Leonard was sitting it was still borderline uncomfortable, but from the sounds he was making Leonard hardly even noticed.

Leonard was loud, he knew he was but didn’t care because the door was locked and the music was a hell of a lot louder. Besides, Jim loved it, grew only more insistent with every moan Leonard let out that sounded even remotely like his name.

He cursed when Leonard dug his fingernails into his back but still began rutting his own cock desperately against Leonard’s inner thigh.

When Leonard came it was with a “Fuck, Jim,” muttered hot in Jim’s ear, and Jim showed his appreciation by giving him a dirty kiss while continuing to rut against him.

Off his high, Leonard’s mind began to wander into that awry train of thought only a drunken man could have. If Carol believed Jim was such a standup guy, Leonard needed to confirm this for himself.

He needed to taste him, he thought, it was the only way he could really tell. He was a medical student after all; he knew some discoveries were only made during extensive physical examinations. When he shoved Jim away it was for both their sakes, really.

Jim looked frustrated for a second but his mouth quickly made an ‘o’ when he saw Leonard smirk as he lowered himself to his knees.

Leonard noticed how Jim’s fingers twitched at his sides, instinctively trying to move for Leonard’s damp hair, until he regained control and gripped the edge of the sink instead.

Jim was courteous, a plus.

Leonard rewarded him by sucking and licking at the head of Jim’s cock underneath the cloth of Jim’s trunks. Jim’s hips canted forward a little but didn’t make an attempt to pull his trunks down.

Patient, another plus, Jim was passing with flying colors.

Leonard lightly scraped his teeth over Jim’s length and looked at him between half-lidded eyes. Jim looked the handsomest Leonard had ever seen him, compliant almost submissive and from the looks of it completely in awe of Leonard, who was steadily working him up and down with a practiced mouth.

Jim _should’ve_ been impressed, Leonard was a natural. He never told anyone but he loved sucking cock, loved the position of power it gave him. It made even the most dominant men beg.

He didn’t want anything more than to hear Jim beg.

Jim didn’t beg though, he let Leonard guide his hands to the crown of Leonard’s head, he pushed, he whined, but he didn’t beg. Jim combed his fingers through Leonard’s hair twice before finally grabbing a fistful like Leonard wanted him to. He pulled, not hard enough and Leonard nudged his head and hoped Jim would take the hint. When Jim understood and tightened his grip he was rewarded with his trunks being pulled down.

Jim was hard. Leonard never had any trouble getting it up no matter how drunk he got, incidentally this was the main cause of his numerous _mistakes_ as a junior at college. Only Jim wasn’t Leonard, which meant that it was impressive really. Either that or Jim wasn’t really that drunk, and Leonard refused to believe that.

At least, that’s what Leonard liked to think; that he was the least drunk person in that particular room. Anyway, he’d never had any trouble getting it up, drunk or not.

Leonard didn’t hesitate to take Jim as deep as he could the first time, no teasing. He swallowed twice, before starting a determined bobbing to get Jim off as quickly as possible.

Jim may have been embarrassed about that fact that he came less than two minutes later if he weren’t so distracted by the fact that Leonard swallowed all of it.

It was something Leonard did that he always regretted later but loved during the moment. The expression of complete awe and stupor on Jim’s face more than made up for it.

Outside he heard a pop song even he knew the lyrics to. 

_“I don’t care. I love it.”_

>>>6<<<

The guys from the cheerleading team were having the worst extra training of their lives. Leonard had shown up at the gym at exactly eight ‘o clock with a pair of sunglasses on and big Styrofoam cup of coffee in his hand. He also had the boys run twenty extra laps just because Boma had the gall to show up at practice at eight ‘o  five.

It had nothing to do with Boma being late really, and everything to do with Leonard’s hangover and the state in which he had woken up.

Which, by the way, was not in his bed but on the floor bundled in his covers. He was wearing a shirt and shorts which not only weren’t his but were also a size too small. He wasn’t wearing any underwear, his body was aching and his mouth tasted like bad breath and alcohol and something bitter that made Leonard want to climb into bed and die. The hangover and the Ziploc bag filled with rice and what he assumed was his cellphone were just the cherry on the pie.

He just hoped the damage he had done to his reputation the other night would be possible to live down.

He abreacted all this by giving the guys a hard time and he knew he should feel guilty about it but thought he’d do that later after the throbbing headache stopped. Right now he just wanted the guys to get their act together and learn what the word synchronized meant.

“Five, six, seven, eight,” he yelled out, trying to keep the rhythm in as the guys practiced the dance routine for the millionth time. The steps weren’t even that hard and the sequence wasn’t even that long, but there was a big difference between copying the steps and doing them _right_. And the guys seemed incapable of doing them right.

“ _Good god,_ again!” Leonard yelled out. “Y’all look like a bunch of junebugs on strings. M’Benga, stretch your arms, for god’s sake.”

M’Benga did better afterwards and Leonard desperately wanted to tell Uhura that occasionally insults did actually work. He didn’t even care that the boys hated him during practice, they knew what they signed up for when they wanted to do college cheerleading, and Leonard preferred they bonded together over their mutual dislike over him than to like him immensely but mess up during the UCA championships.

He did let up a little after the boys got it right for the first time and the practice ended on a more relaxed note when they finished up with a couple of simple tumbling drills he knew they could do by heart.

At the end of practice he clapped everyone on the shoulder and praised them for their effort. They all smiled back which meant that Leonard was at least doing something right.  With the coffee well into his system he was starting to feel better, then he saw Jim approach him in the gym.

Jim looked, better than Leonard for starters, and pretty well rested, but he wasn’t wearing his signature sunglasses. He grinned at Leonard, bright blue eyes beaming at him.

“Spectators aren’t allowed on the premises during cheer practice, Jim,” Leonard said with his arms crossed.

“Sorry, didn’t know that.”

Leonard narrowed his eyes. “Why do I not believe you?”

Jim grinned. “Because I’m lying.”

Leonard rolled his eyes, he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. “I’m going to take a shower,” he said and walked towards the changing room.

“Wait up.” Jim skipped up to him. “I brought you coffee.”

Leonard gave him a distrustful look but still took the cup of coffee from Jim’s hands.

Jim smiled. “See? We can be friends,” he said.

“Can we?” Leonard said sarcastically. He took a sip from his coffee, cream and sugar, too bad.

“I figured since we were already enjoying the _benefits_ , we could just work our way back...”

A lengthy series of curse words went through Leonard’s mind but he kept his expression as neutral as possible, took another sip from his coffee to buy himself some time and then said: “What about last night?”

“What, indeed,” Jim agreed. “You can give my clothes back anytime by the way. Or, I could come pick them up, say, tonight?”

Leonard’s voice was clear as day as he spoke. “Not happening.”

“What not tonight, or not ever?”

“ _Not ever_.”

“But why?” Jim asked. “Last night was fucking hot, Bones. I mean I was _great_ and you gave it the old college try—” Leonard let out a deriding laugh, Jim continued. “but I think we could do better. We owe it to ourselves to do better. Stop being so _selfish_ , Bones.”

“If you’re trying to piss me off,” Leonard deadpanned. “It’s working.”

“Actually, I’m trying to _get_ you off,” Jim replied and he smiled when he saw the red appearing on Leonard’s cheeks. “Kind of like last night.”

“I was drunk last night,” Leonard said defensively.

“Not drunk enough.”

Leonard rubbed his temples, he felt another headache coming up. “Look,” he started. “Let’s just say that was a one-time thing.”

“We did it twice,” Jim said, wiggling two fingers in front of Leonard.

“Jim, you’re killing me here.”

“All right, tell you what,” Jim said, relenting somewhat. “If you change your mind, see me after the game next week.”

Leonard sighed. “Sure, Jim.”

He was one-hundred percent certain that he wasn’t going to change his mind anyway.

>>>7<<<

One week and a couple of vivid memories later, Leonard was a lot less sure.

He had told Jim some _very_ encouraging things in that bathroom. Things that turned his ears bright red when he thought about it now. One thing was for sure though, later in Jim’s bedroom he had given it an _exceptional_ college try.

If he humored himself on the thought of accepting Jim’s offer it was only because he was a human being. He’d never say it to Jim but judging from his memories Jim had been a fantastic lay. More importantly, no one else was offering.

Well, he was offering himself but that didn’t count.

It rained during the game, but it wasn’t cold. Uhura sat next to Leonard and was a little chagrined as they shared an umbrella. They couldn’t practice any difficult formations because of the wet field but despite the rain the football team was kicking ass today.

The other cheerleaders were jumping around energizing the crowd. When Sulu scored another touchdown Carol and Gaila jumped into each other’s arms and did a little victory dance with each other.

Leonard smiled. “They’ve become close,” he said to Uhura.

Uhura nodded. “That’s because they’ve slept together.”

Leonard almost sprained his neck by how quickly he turned around. “What?!”

“After the charity event. I thought you knew,” Uhura said. 

“Well, I didn’t,” Leonard said, and glared at Gaila. He should have known better than to trust her with a sweet girl like Carol.

“Oh, relax, Leonard,” Uhura said. “Gaila just tried to loosen Carol up a bit and she looks a lot more confident now. Besides, she’s not the only one who used that party to blow off some steam.”

“Please spare me the sexual adventures of you and Spock.”

Uhura raised an eyebrow, a trait she had copied from Spock. “I was talking about you and Jim, actually.”

“Who told you? It was Jim wasn’t it? That _son of a bitch_.”

Uhura raised her eyebrow even higher. “Jim didn’t say a word,” she said, and she gave Leonard an appraising look. “Spock’s room is next to the bathroom.”

That took a second for Leonard to sink in. “Oh my god.”

Uhura laughed “You were surprisingly loud too. I had to assume it was Jim in there, but I _knew_ it was you.”

Leonard hid his face in his hands and groaned. “Oh, _god_.”

Uhura laughed even louder, she was having way too much fun at Leonard’s expense. “Relax, I didn’t tell anyone. Spock didn’t either.”

Leonard didn’t know what to say to that just yet. They watched the game, cheered during recess in the pouring rain and then watched the team play during defense.

“Was it a one-time thing, Leo?” Uhura asked casually when they were back on their seats. She cheered when Spock hurled a player over his shoulder scoring a safety.

“Nyota, I really don’t want to talk about this,” Leonard said, feeling conflicted enough as it was without other people butting in.

“Not with me, or?” Uhura asked.

Leonard sighed. “Not with anyone.”

“Ok,” Uhura said, and just like that she put her focus back on the game.

“I mean he did offer but…I don’t know,” Leonard blurted out.

Uhura had gently taken Leonard’s hand and guided the umbrella, which he had dropped during his train of thought, back up over her head. “You don’t want to,” she asked.

Leonard scoffed. “ _No_ , of course not,” he said. He glanced at Uhura who stared back. “Okay, _maybe_ ,” he admitted with a huff.

Uhura took the umbrella from Leonard when he dropped it the second time and held it over her own head. “So what’s stopping you?”

“Jim is,” Leonard said, like that was answer enough.

“You think _Jim_ won’t be able to understand the concept of no-strings-attached.” Uhura asked incredulously. “ _Jim_.”

“Sure when _you_ say it, it sounds stupid,” Leonard said.

Leonard had known Jim for a couple of years now and had never seen him in a steady relationship, ever. If someone knew the rules of a casual fuck it would’ve been him, but this was Jim they were talking about and rules simply didn’t seem to apply to him.

“Did he give you an ultimatum?” Uhura asked when Leonard stayed quiet for too long.

“Yeah,” Leonard muttered. “Till after the game.”

They won the game by a good thirty points. The away team quietly withdrew from the stadium while their home team was still on the field, calm but obviously happy with their victory. Most of the players, dripping wet, still made their way to the changing room though, in need of a hot shower and some dry clothes.

Coach Pike and Spock were still on the field, speaking to a couple of reporters about the game. So was Jim but he was walking off the field. Not even once glancing at the first row, where Leonard was standing, drenched to the bone and alone. The cheer team had already left for the showers and Leonard, who was busy rethinking his life, had stayed behind.

When Jim hadn’t even looked at him he had automatically turned to take a second look at Jim, dripping wet and covered in mud in his football uniform. In a split second Leonard had made his decision, and he hoped it’s wouldn’t come and nip him in the butt in the near future.

He ran towards Jim, trying to catch up to him.

“Jim,” he whispered loudly. “Jim!”

Jim turned around and wiped away a drop of water falling down his forehead. “Bones,” he said with a smirk. From his attitude and his very demeanor Jim already knew what Leonard was going to say.

“You’d better not make me regret this,” Leonard grumbled.

Jim’s smirk didn’t fade. “Give me ten minutes and meet me outside.”

Even after more or less accepting Jim’s offer, Leonard still had second thoughts. The reason Leonard was able to dismiss said second thoughts (and third, fourth and fifth thoughts) was that it was just after the football game. This meant that a lot, if not everyone, at campus was out celebrating. It offered Leonard a certain anonymity that he much needed right now because of how he felt. He felt like he was doing something that his Nana, god rest her soul, would never have approved of. Then again, what did she know? She was long married by that age; she had no idea how tough single straight-laced college life could be.

They were in front of Jim’s dorm house, completely alone.

Jim opened the door and Leonard had to give himself one more mental pep-talk. Jim let Leonard go in first.

“You don’t tell this to anyone,” Leonard said, walking into the house. He walked up the stairs, Jim following close behind, and he turned once to glance back and say: “This is a physical thing only.”

On the first floor Jim grabbed the front of Leonard’s shirt and pulled him towards his room while Leonard tried to remember other ground rules. “Don’t expect me to meet you in public either,” he said in the doorway to Jim’s room and Jim rolled his eyes before he pulled Leonard into the room, kicked the door shut and pushed Leonard against it. He kissed Leonard hard, his tongue finding easy access by Leonard’s apparent surprise.

“Thanks,” Jim said when he pulled back. “I think I got it.”

Leonard licked his lips, resisted the urge to pull Jim back just yet. “’S long as we’re clear.”

They made out for a while against the door until Leonard figured that if they were going to do this, they shouldn’t bother with so much of the foreplay. “Bed,” he muttered, his lip still on Jim’s, but Jim understood because he walked back towards his double bed guiding Leonard with him.

They lowered themselves on the bed, Leonard on top while Jim kicked off his shoes beneath him. “The rest too, Jim,” Leonard said with a smirk. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so strange after all.

“I said: the rest too, Jim,” he repeated when Jim took too long, but the moment he leaned in too close, Jim hooked a leg under Leonard’s and easily flipped them so that he was now on top.

To make sure Leonard wouldn’t move anywhere he pinned his legs on either side of his body and rested some of his weight on Leonard’s pelvis as he sat down on his knees.

“You know, I’m always disappointed that the male cheerleaders don’t get to wear those cute little skirts,” he said, slowly pushing Leonard’s shirt all the way up to his armpits. Then he leaned forward, grinding their hips together in the process, so he could kiss Leonard again before he could gripe about Jim’s comment.

All the while Jim’s hands traveled lazily up and down Leonard’s bare chest, pinched at his skin and rolled over his nipples until they were hard pebbles under Jim’s fingers. He was a lot less rough than last time but just as possessive, traced circles around Leonard’s thighs in a way that felt a lot less like caressing and more like petting.

Jim was either worshipping Leonard, or examining property, Leonard didn’t know which one was the lesser evil.

Whenever Leonard tried to sit up or roll up his hips impatiently, Jim just pushed him back down, making him groan in frustration.

“Relax,” Jim said, sitting up and grinding his ass in a twisting motion just over Leonard’s dick while he looked at the expanse of skin he had uncovered.

He knew it was all narcissistic bullshit; Jim was just appreciating the trail of bruises and hickeys he’d left on Leonard’s body last time. When he grew tired of that he began moving Leonard like a puppet just so he could pull Leonard’s pants down to his ankles. He scooted down a little lower so he could grope down Leonard’s briefs, and starting cupping Leonard’s half-hard dick, without actually grabbing it.  

“Bastard,” Leonard grunted out, when he saw the smug smile on Jim’s face.

Jim slapped Leonard’s thigh, hard. “Stop grouching,” he said. “and turn around.”

Jim stood up from the bed to give Leonard some space and Leonard flopped on his stomach. He instinctively rubbed his hard on over the bed and let out an exhibitionistic moan. Jim let him for a while, it being enough reason for Jim to finally ditch his shirt and pants. Good, they were now on a more level-playing field.

“Fuck, come here,” Jim said, circling an arm around Leonard’s waist to pull him on his knees. “Don’t move.” Jim pulled Leonard’s briefs down and brushed his fingers between Leonard’s ass cheeks receiving an appreciative sound in response.

Then, completely opposite to what Leonard wanted, Jim went off the bed again and walked to his closet. Leonard rolled his eyes and lowered himself back on the bed. “Take your time why don’t you,” he said sarcastically, twisting and leaning on his elbow so he could look at Jim.

“Just give me a second, _Jesus_ ,” Jim snapped back, while he scooped a handful of clothes from his messy closet.

“Need help?” Leonard asked, slightly amused.

“No,” Jim said, his voice sounded a little desperate. “Just, wait there.”

“Sure thang,” Leonard drawled back, and just for good measure he stretched himself into a split, his legs neatly on either side.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Jim cursed. He was clumsily pulling on sweatpants and stumbled to the door. “Do _not_ move from that position.”

It didn’t actually take all that long for Jim to return, but it was long enough for Leonard to get bored and roll unto his back. He was slowly jacking himself off while looking around the room. He noticed there were a lot of trophies but disproportionally more books scattered around it than football memorabilia.

Before Leonard bothered to process that information, Jim was back with a condom between his teeth and a bottle of lube in his hand. He pulled his pants, underwear and socks off all at once and the bed dented in as he sat down between Leonard’s legs.

“Thought I told you _not_ to move,” Jim said, rolling the condom on with practiced ease.

“I got bored,” Leonard said.

“Well I’m here, so you can stop.” Jim said, and Leonard let him take his hands off his dick. Then he grabbed Leonard’s legs by his calves and kind of handed them to Leonard. “Hold these,” Jim said.

“All the way back, or?” Leonard asked as he took his legs and pulled them so close to his chest that he was almost doubled over.  

Jim bit his lip, grabbed the base of his own cock and squeezed.  “Fuck, Bones. That’s… _fuck_.”

Well, that was one way to discover a kink.

Leonard’s little trick picked up the pace and it took Jim seconds to lube his fingers and push the first finger into Leonard. He wiggled around for a bit before he added the second, then the third.

With his fingers alone he was having a big success in getting Leonard off, and he easily found the spot that sent shocks of pleasure through Leonard’s body. Once found, Jim seemed completely content with milking him out for a few minutes, drops of precome smearing down Leonard’s stomach.

It was almost a relief when Jim finally pushed himself in, bottomed out and proceeded to fuck in exactly the same way as he played. Aggressive, determined and like a fucking champion. He ploughed into Leonard hard and every time he did Leonard couldn’t help but let out sounds of ample appreciation. When Jim leaned over so he could pump Leonard’s cock in the same rhythm, Leonard thought he was going to lose his mind for a second.

Perhaps it was Jim, or, more likely it was because he hadn’t fucked properly in so long, but for a moment it felt like he was having the best sex he’d ever had. Honestly, even if he wasn’t so hard up it still would’ve been top ten.

When Jim lifted Leonard so he could find another angle, a _better_ angle, it bumped up into the top three.  

When he comes, it’s with Jim’s cock inside of him, Jim’s hand jacking him off and Jim’s name on his tongue.

He let go of his legs and Jim caught them on his shoulders, used them as leverage as his thrust grew quicker and harder until he came with his cock balls deep and his hands tight around Leonard’s ankles.

After the high of orgasm usually came the low of clear reality. Leonard’s reality was that he thought about having another go in about ten minutes, and he wondered what Jim would do to him if he showed him he could to a needle scale.

To Leonard’s disappointment Jim fell asleep before he was able to find out, but he resigned and did the same. Jim woke him up in the middle of the night to make up for it, and once again in the early morning to be absolutely sure there were no hard feelings.

Afterwards, Jim had gone for a run and taken a quick shower, while Leonard’s slept off his post-coital exhaustion.  When he came back he made him way back to the bed, still damp, buck-naked and with an all-telling grin on his face.

“It’s raining,” he said. “Better stay over.”

Leonard didn’t mind, he had nowhere to be that day anyway.

>>>8<<<

Jim sent him a text about every other day. Mostly after football practice, sometimes during the weekend. Leonard tried not to accept every single invitation, but this was becoming more difficult with each passing day.

Leonard was starting to like Jim and enjoyed his company. This had something to do with Jim’s slight change in demeanor around Leonard. He stopped wearing his sunglasses around him and didn’t crack distasteful jokes anymore. In part it also had to do something with Leonard.

While Leonard hated to admit he was wrong he had been slightly off in his perception of Jim. Sure he was still cocky and arrogant, but not _as_ cocky and arrogant as Leonard gave him credit for. And he was considerate; he had to give Jim that. Considerate and surprisingly intelligent.

Jim happened to be a hundred times smarter than he made everyone believe he was. After sex he’d read Concepts in Electric Circuits in bed like it was a good novel. Jim loved football, he really did, but he loved physics and politics and a lot of other things Leonard knew nothing about, just as much.

If Spock didn’t use the word so much, Leonard would’ve said it was fascinating.

After exam week Jim convinced Leonard to spend the night. They were on Jim’s double bed and Leonard had the covers pulled over him and was hugging his pillow when he noticed Jim staring at him.

“Spit it out, Jim” he said.

“I was just wondering why you’re on the cheer team,” Jim said. “I mean, you _never_ smile.”

Leonard shrugged. “There was no gymnastics club,” he explained. “And I _smile_ ,” he added with a scowl.

“That’s not a smile, Bones,” Jim said, and he pulled himself up and leaned over Leonard, which Leonard found incredibly suspicious.

Rightly so because Jim used his advantageous position to pin Leonard down and he began tickling Leonard all over. “That’s a smile,” Jim said with a laugh, and Leonard who did not find it amusing at all guffawed while attempting to roll away from Jim.

He had to kick Jim in order to get away, and when Jim finally let go of him he was so disoriented he accidentally rolled off the bed.

“ _Asshole_ ,” Leonard said when his head popped back up from the ground, but his scowl made Jim go into some kind of laughing fit and he clutched his sides while Leonard climbed back on the bed.

Leonard waited it out, watching Jim while he leaned on his elbow. When Jim finally looked at him, Leonard could see the tears on Jim’s cheeks.

“Are you done?” Leonard asked.

“Yeah,” Jim said, but laughter was still in his voice. “Yeah, I’m done.” 

“Good,” Leonard said, and he tried to keep a straight face until Jim let out a last chuckle and he couldn’t help but smile himself.

“Ah, I made you _smile_ ,” Jim beamed. “I knew I would wear you down eventually.”

Leonard patted Jim’s cheek and smirked. “Like a persistent flu.”

Jim grinned. “Because I make you all hot and bothered.”

Leonard pinched Jim’s arm and Jim protested with a laugh.

“Go to sleep, Jim.”

When Leonard woke up the next morning, Jim was gone for his morning jog. He threw on a shirt and a pair of sweatpants he always left at Jim’s place and went to the kitchen for breakfast.

There Spock sat by the kitchen counter, eating half a grapefruit and a slice of whole grain toast.

“Morning,” Leonard muttered at him.

“Good morning, Leonard,” Spock replied civilly.

It didn’t matter how many times this happened, whenever Leonard ate breakfast with Spock but without Jim, it was awkward as hell.

Trying to have a conversation with Spock was like having a conversation with an AI robot:

“How about them red sox?”

“I don’t have any red socks.”

And more cringe-worthy exchanges like that.

The best days were when Uhura was there and Spock and Jim were already gone. It made for some great morning gossip before class. Uhura loved the fact that they could talk cheerleading over breakfast.

He never told anyone but Uhura but most people assumed he was fucking Jim Kirk. Not that it mattered, his teammates were elated to find out that a McCoy who got laid was considerably less irritable.

Actually, the only one who was genuinely concerned was Leonard himself. He increasingly found himself in the company of Jim Kirk for inexplicable reasons. Sometimes he’d spend the night three times a week and he knew that wasn’t normal, he knew that he was crossing a line somewhere. Problem was, he wasn’t sure how to uncross it. Or if he even wanted to.

That afternoon he found himself back in Jim’s bed.

“So are you going to Uhura’s tonight?” Jim asked. He was sitting at his desk, cross-legged in his boxers, a book resting in the crook of his legs.

Leonard had rolled himself up in a comforter and had pried his arms loose so he could use his brand-new cellphone. “Why the hell wouldn’t I be,” he asked.

“Because you don’t like those kinds of things,” Jim said, looking up from his book. “…Parties, I mean.”

“It’s just the cheer team and a couple of you guys.” Leonard yawned. “Hardly a party.”

Jim got up from his chair and placed his book on the table. “Fair enough,” he said as he walked up to Leonard who was still on his bed, still on his phone and still not wearing any clothes. “You leaving this bed any time soon, McCoy?”

“You want me out of this bed, Kirk?” Leonard answered, not looking up from his phone. He glanced at Jim briefly when he felt Jim’s weight denting the bed.

“Hmm,” Jim hummed. “Depends.” He pried Leonard’s phone away from his fingers and dropped it on the floor behind him, resulting in a malicious scowl from Leonard. Then Jim found an edge of the comforter and pulled to roll Leonard out of it with a flourish.

“Too tired,” Leonard muttered. He stood up from the bed just when Jim flopped down with a groan.

“You’re in your twenties, _how_ are you tired,” Jim complained.

“I’m in my _mid_ -twenties,” Leonard rectified, crawling down to pull a sock from under Jim’s bed. “Where’s my shirt?”

“Try the desk,” Jim said.

Leonard got dressed, minus one sock which he never found, and took the bus home.

Leonard lived in a college-owned residence. A two bedroom apartment he shared with another student he hardly ever saw. Not that he was complaining; he actually liked the chance to wind down in his apartment away from the undergraduate hell-hole he used to live in.

Leonard’s room was clean, but not tidy. He threw his shirt and sock in the laundry basket in the corner of his room and pulled another clean shirt from his closet. He was about to pull it on when he decided a shower would be better. He didn’t smell like sex, but he smelled like Jim all over.

Jim didn’t wear aftershave or perfume, but with the ridiculous hours of exercise he managed to cram into a day, and the numerous showers that followed, Jim always had a faint smell of heavily scented body wash, deodorant and shampoo. All the products had the same scent, something his mother would describe as the art of fragrance layering.

Leonard had more than enough time to take a shower and cook something before going to Uhura’s. Of course he didn’t have time to study anymore like he planned, but that was just the result of his own lack of restraint.  

Jim had called him up in the just after he’d left for a quickie after class. The type of booty call Leonard would’ve never said yes to in the past but now found himself answering in five minutes tops.

Which Leonard would’ve found fucking tragic if he wasn’t saying yes to the best sex he’d ever had, which made it just…a little sad.

Leonard took a shower, quickly tidied up his room, and cooked himself some pasta with chicken parmesan. By the time he’d cleaned the kitchen it was eight o’ clock, and he went to Uhura’s.

Like Spock, Uhura lived in a private owned dorm house. It wasn’t owned by her parents though, and was considerably less extravagant than the mansion Spock called home. Still, Leonard loved the coziness of their living room, the homeliness only a female touch could bring.

Like he told Jim, it wasn’t much of a party as it was a small gathering of friends. There was a relaxed atmosphere; a couple of the guys and girls were playing rummy in the kitchen and some were chatting in the backyard. In the living room a couple of the girls and Jim were playing a dance video game. 

Jim and Gaila were laughing as they attempted to mimic the choreography of a melodramatic eighties’ love song.

“Don’t _laugh_ Gail, you’re making _me_ laugh,” Jim said trying to force himself to look serious as he dipped Gaila. He saw Leonard and winked at him.

“Sorry,” Gaila giggled, but tried to keep a straight face as they twirled around each other while trying to glance at the screen every now and then. The both of them cracked up when they had to slow dance about the room.

Leonard sat next to Uhura on the couch, and Uhura leaned against Leonard’s shoulder in greeting.

“They’ve been playing non-stop,” Uhura said nudging at Gaila and Jim.

When the song was over, Jim and Gaila took a bow, and Gaila immediately picked another song together with Sulu while Jim flopped down on the couch next to Leonard.

“I can’t believe you’ve never let me play this game when I was here, Nyota,” Jim said.

Uhura smiled. “Gaila pulled it out of the closet. I’d forgotten all about it. ”

Jim shook his head. “That magnificent woman,” he said. They watched Sulu and Gaila do a rather strange tribal dance against each other, and when it was done Jim stood up and offered his arm to Gaila who took it with a wink. Together they walked towards the kitchen having about as much fun as they were having a couple of minutes ago.

Leonard and Uhura stayed in the living room and only stood up once to dance together to humor the girls. But they were more than happy to just watch the team having a good time.

After about thirty minutes Spock showed up and Uhura ditched Leonard so that she and Spock could take a little nighttime walk. Leonard hadn’t seen Jim after he’d left for the kitchen, and decided to look for him.

Jim wasn’t in the kitchen or in the backyard, not in the hall and not on the front porch.

Leonard would’ve thought he was gone altogether if he hadn’t seen the open door of the laundry room.

He heard Jim’s gasp before anything, recognized it clearly, and flicked out the switch in the hallway before he even attempted to look into the room.

It was just a quick glance, he knew they wouldn’t see him, but even if he hadn’t turned the light off Leonard doubted they would’ve noticed he was standing there. Gaila was sitting on the washing machine, her red hair a heap of messy curls as Jim twisted his hands in it as she kissed her, encouraged her to twist her legs around his waist even tighter by grabbing her ass and pulling her closer.

Leonard turned back towards the kitchen with a heavy weight in his stomach. He stayed there for a couple of minutes and thought about having a beer before changing his mind. By some bizarre decision, he found himself walking back to the laundry room.

Jim and Gaila were already gone by then, and it didn’t take a genius to find out where they went.

Leonard wished with a passion that he had never looked for Jim or that he at least hadn’t pretended that he hadn’t seen the both of them. He could’ve just told them to knock it off, he did that to Gaila loads of times and she never cared much when he did. The fact that he couldn’t this time was what bothered him the most.

He tried to hide his mood from everyone else, grabbed another beer from the refrigerator and went back to the living room.  There he sat on the couch, watched the girls play and politely declined each time they invited him to join. Instead he nursed his beer and brooded over the fact that Jim was actually having sex upstairs with someone else. The entire idea pissed him off, which he knew was stupid, which pissed him off even more.

He considered waiting for the both of them, confronting them about it, but after about an hour he figured that was just _really_ pathetic and dropped the idea.

He decided to make a quiet exit instead. No one was at the front of the house but he took one quick glance back before closing the door behind him.

From his peripherals he could see Jim hopping down the stairs, two steps at a time. Jim saw him and looked as if he was about to say something.

“Bones.”

Leonard left the door open and walked out without looking back. He didn’t run, hell, he didn’t even speed walk, but it felt like he was trying to make a bolt for it anyway. Just far enough from the house so that the music dampened and the street turned darker, Jim caught up to him.

 “In a hurry much?” Jim said while letting out a sigh from the little sprint he just made. “I haven’t seen you all night.”

 _Whose fault is that?_ Leonard wanted to say accusingly, but he bit the words back. “’m tired,” he said instead.

“As in party tired, or _tired_ tired?” Jim asked. “Because I thought we could go to my place for a little nightcap.”

Leonard had to clench his teeth together to keep himself from snapping, and he didn’t trust himself to say anything yet. Jim didn’t notice, and just kept talking.

“The guys are out in the town and Spock’s spending the night at Uhura’s, so we can do whatever we want, _wherever_ we want.”

“No thanks, Jim,” Leonard said, trying to sound aloof.

“Why not?” Jim said. “It’ll be fun.” He played with the lapel of Leonard’s shirt and Leonard had to control himself to not swat Jim’s hand away.

“Because I don’t feel like it, all right?” Leonard spat at him.

Jim’s smile disappeared and he pulled his hand away. “Hey, sorry, I was just fooling around,” he apologized and took a step back. Leonard should’ve left it there, should have walked away, but he had this problem where once the words came out he just couldn’t stop. 

So he scoffed instead. “What, just now or for the last couple of hours?”

Even while he said it, Leonard knew it was a low blow to give, but it was too late to back down, not when Jim got the hint.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jim said, but he knew exactly what it meant.

“Figure it out,” Leonard replied.

“No, I want you to say it to my fucking face, Bones,” Jim said, his voice low and slightly hostile. “Because we agreed we weren’t going to be exclusive so don’t think I’m just going to stand here and swallow your sanctimonious _bullshit_.”

“Fine,” Leonard yelled back. “Fine! I don’t want you to fuck someone on the cheer team, which you _know_ I’m co-captain of, upstairs while I’m in the fucking living room.”

“I can fuck whoever I want whenever the fuck I want!” Jim yelled back.

“Well you sure as hell ain’t fucking me!”

Jim clenched his fists and his hands were shaking. For a second Leonard thought Jim would punch him and god, he desperately wanted the bastard to make that mistake. Only Jim changed his mind, decided to be the bigger man, and deescalated the whole situation albeit just a little.

They stood opposite each other, waiting for the other to do something. Lash out verbally or physically, or both. They stood there until the tension flooded out and Leonard could even his breath, and decide that he wouldn’t give Jim the satisfaction of landing both the first verbal _and_ physical blow.

Instead he did the grown up thing to do. Rolled his shoulders back and said with the least amount of venom in his voice. “See you around, Jim.”

Jim shook his head. “Whatever, Bones.”

>>>9<<<

What at first seemed to be a private little war between Jim and Leonard turned out to be a public screaming match that half the campus heard and the other half heard about the next day.

It was humiliating. The first couple of days Leonard couldn’t even go to the cafeteria without getting the feeling that everyone was staring at him, pointing at him, laughing at him.

There were always rumors about Jim Kirk’s fuckbuddies, which was nothing special. Only Leonard was a cheerleader, a _male_ cheerleader and co-captain. The students just ate those kinds of stories up.

Gaila had felt terrible of course. She’d apologized to Leonard for getting in between Jim and him. But Leonard wasn’t angry at Gaila, not even a little bit. He was furious with Jim though, hated how the entire situation seemed to affect only him and not Jim.

That was especially apparent during football games where Leonard would manage to mess up a simple front aerial while Jim would end up scoring three touchdowns and would almost single-handedly win the game.

Leonard also suspected there were false rumors being spread about him. Lies out of Jim’s mouth about what ‘actually’ happened, how desperate Leonard was, how ‘crazy’ he was. He thought all jocks did that, when they were at risk of looking bad or less masculine. But the rumors never came, and the players on the football team left him alone. Even Hendorff, the offensive tackle, didn’t harass him about it, and it just confirmed that either Jim or Spock or both of them had something to do with it. Leonard wanted to be thankful but it just made him feel even more humiliated.

Uhura tried to get Leonard back on track by introducing him to SEX.

This, disappointingly, was an acronym.

Studying, Exercise and eXtracurricular activities aka SEX. Uhura believed the only way to move on from an ex was to reinvent yourself into a better and more enviable version of when you were with said person.

Leonard speculated that if Spock and Uhura ever broke up, Uhura would reinvent herself into the President of the United States just to spite him.

In the beginning he tried to live by Uhura’s SEX rules just to humor her, but three weeks in he was really starting to reap the benefits. His grades had never been better, he was in top-shape and he managed to perfect the boys’ dancing sequence.

Most importantly he was getting his mind off Jim, he was moving on.

This bothered him the most. They had never been a ‘thing’, had never been exclusive, and yet Leonard still felt like he needed to ‘move on’.

There was a word for that. Oh, right.

Thankfully the SEX had whipped his pitiable self back into shape.

At the hospital Leonard was distinguishing himself from the other interns and even some of the residents. Besides, Boyce had pretty much made him his protégé.

Philip Boyce specialized in neurology, but preferred to work at the ICU now that he’d gotten older and his hands were less steady. Boyce believed a good doctor knew how to work under pressure, when every decision could determine whether a patient was going to live or die.

He believed Leonard had talent, and Leonard was determined not to let him down.

He was in the on-call room on a Thursday night, watching old sitcom reruns when they paged him, and he was in the ICU within minutes.

Another traffic accident: a motorcycle and a car with two passengers. The passengers were fine, the woman who was driving was having a panic attack but the nurses were trying to calm her down. The man had some cuts and bruises and a nasty head wound that needed some stitches but was fully conscious.

Leonard knew the statistics when it came to motorcycle accidents and in a way he half expected to see someone’s remains served on a platter. It almost felt like luck when they brought the young man in, covered in blood, bruised and broken, but alive.

The reason why Leonard couldn’t move was because beneath the blood and the broken bones he knew that face.

The room began to spin and for a second Leonard felt like he was going to be sick. He looked at Boyce who was saying something to him which somehow didn’t register in his mind. Then someone shoved him out of the way as Jim went into cardiac arrest.

It took them three tries to get his heart beating again, before they rushed him to surgery.

Leonard made it to the bathroom just in time to throw up last night’s dinner. They’d already called Jim’s primary contact.

Two hours later he was standing next to Christopher Pike in the waiting room, and they were watching Jim through a window.

“He’s stable, but he’s not waking up,” Leonard told him, and he wondered how he managed to become so detached within an hour. “He’s broken both of his legs, left leg in three different places, and fractured his patella,” he continued. “There seems to be a lesion in his spinal cord. We think it’s a hemisection. I hope it’s a hemisection.”

Pike clenched his fists but managed to keep a straight face as he looked at Jim. His MVP. “Goddammit, Jim,” he said, and that was enough.

Leonard didn’t know a whole lot about football but he knew that if Jim were to ever wake up he’d never be able to play again.

Spock and Uhura arrived an hour later, after Pike had given him permission to call them. When they entered the hall, Spock immediately walked to the window looking into Jim’s room but Uhura first went up to Leonard and hugged him tightly. The touch made it all hit home, and he sobbed softly against her chest, because he didn’t know what else to do. “He’s never going to play again, Nyota,” he told her. “It’s going to break his heart.”

He knew it was the wrong thing to say when Jim hadn’t even woken up yet, when they didn’t even know how much damage had been done. But it was the only thing Leonard could think about because he knew it was the only thing Jim would care about when he woke up.

It took Jim two days to wake up from his coma. All of his teammates had visited him by that time, but none of his family. Pike told him about Jim’s mother and brother who were alive somewhere but they didn’t know where. At some point, Jim hadn’t cared anymore. Leonard felt guilty that he never knew that about him.

Jim was his own person, an adult, but Pike was the closest thing to a parent that he had. Maybe he wasn’t really father material, he never claimed otherwise, but Leonard could see he was there for Jim. Pike spent most of his free time at the hospital in case Jim woke up and when he finally did he convinced the doctors to let him tell Jim about his legs and back.

He wanted to be the one who shattered Jim’s dreams before anyone else could.

Jim had been awake, on and off, for two days when they told him, but Leonard knew that Jim had already put two and two together. He still looked devastated when Pike told him though. Leonard was on call that day, wanted to give them their privacy but couldn’t look away from Jim’s hand bundled in a tight fist around the shirt on Pike’s back. How Pike seemed to be telling Jim something important, and Jim just listened with tears falling down his cheeks. Leonard didn’t need to hear the conversation to know exactly what Pike was saying. Encouraging words on how they’d get through this, how they’d figure it out.

The first time Leonard entered the room it was in the middle of the night and Jim was asleep. He didn’t say anything but watched him. Beneath all the gauze and bandages, Jim still looked the same.

After Pike, Uhura and Spock were the first people to pay Jim an actual visit. Different from Leonard’s expectations it was Uhura who sat at the chair by the wall and Spock who had sat down next to Jim and spoke the most. Spock didn’t smile, not even once, but he never moved an inch from Jim’s side. When Leonard later asked Uhura what Spock was talking about she smiled and said that Spock memorized the entire college football rankings and summarized all the college lectures Jim had missed.

When Leonard finally mustered the courage to visit Jim it was Wednesday, just after lunch. Jim didn’t pretend to be okay when Leonard entered his room, didn’t have to smile or say that he was fine. He knew Leonard saw him when they brought him to the hospital holding on for dear life, he knew Leonard knew the truth.

Leonard sat down next to Jim. “Hey, Jim,” he said softly.

“Hey, Bones,” Jim said back with a raspy voice. “How’ve you been?”

Leonard let out short and bitter laugh at the question. He took Jim’s hand and squeezed it gently. “’M fine, Jim.” 

“That’s good,” Jim said, and he sighed and let his eyes flutter close. He was struggling to stay awake.

“’S okay, Jimmy. Go to sleep,” Leonard said, but Jim stubbornly opened his eyes.

“Slept for two days straight,” he said. “Sick of sleeping”

Leonard yielded, and he looked at the tray of untouched food in front of Jim. “The nurses told me you haven’t been eating much.”

“’Not hungry,” Jim said.

“You need to regain your strength before you can begin with your rehabilitation,” Leonard explained. 

Jim breathed out heavily, something akin to a laugh. “What for? Can’t play anymore, Bones.”

Leonard swallowed the lump in his throat back down. “I know.”

“I’m on a sports scholarship,” Jim said. “And I can’t play.”

He wondered about the words Pike had used when he told Jim that day. He wanted to say the same thing: that everything would turn out fine. Only his voice cracked before he managed to get a single word out. When he tried again he did his best to sound firm. “Pike will come through, he’ll find a way.”

Jim closed his eyes and fell asleep. Leonard kept holding his hand until the visiting hour was over.

>>>10<<<

“I’ve convinced the board to grant Jim a partial scholarship and all Jim has to do is maintain his 4.0 GPA,” Pike said, pacing around the room while Leonard sat at the chair in front of his desk. “Jim lives in a private dorm so I’ll talk to Spock about his housing costs.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem, sir,” Leonard said easily.

When Pike had asked Leonard to see him in his office he hadn’t known what to expect. Pike had promised he’d do the best he could for Jim but that didn’t mean he could move mountains, Leonard knew that.

No matter how they wished to see it, they knew Jim had become a liability the moment it became clear that he couldn’t play football anymore. Besides, Jim hadn’t sustained his injury on the field so the university believed they didn’t really owe Jim anything.

Pike probably pulled in every favor he had for Jim’s sake, and even then it had taken him just over three weeks to cut the deal.

“Thank you,” Leonard said. Though he wasn’t really sure why _he_ felt the need to thank Pike.

From the amused look on Pike’s face, he wasn’t sure either. “You’ve been there almost every day I’ve heard.”

“Whenever I have the time.”

“I’m sure he appreciates it.” Pike said, and he smirked as he leaned against the edge of his desk. “Are you going over there today, Mr. McCoy?”

“Right after I leave this office,” Leonard replied.

“Good, then you can tell him the good news,” Pike said. “I have three weeks’ worth of paperwork waiting on my desk and a secretary who won’t shut up about it.”

Leonard raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure he’d like to hear it from you, sir. Thank you in person and all that.”

Pike’s face didn’t flinch from the smirk he had on his face and he crossed his arms. “Leonard,” he said. “I may not be as spry as I used to be, but the advantage of having a couple of years under the belt is that you get to notice the little things. You see the patterns, you lay ‘em down, you know where the ball is going to roll to.”

Sports references, ugh.  Leonard wanted to roll his eyes, but he figured that would be inappropriate.

“I know Jim better than anyone, better than _you_ know him,” Pike continued. “So believe me when I say that he’s going to want to hear the news from you.”

Leonard wanted to protest when the phone rang. Pike turned to grab the horn and picked it up after quickly dismissing Leonard.

Leonard left Pike’s office a little disgruntled.

He went to the hospital just before visiting hours; his routine for the last three weeks. It took Jim that long to slowly regain the feeling in his legs after his back surgery.

He had been so frustrated at first, how he couldn’t move his toes and how his broken legs would just kind of lay there in front of him like ghost limbs. Those were the first days, the toughest days when Leonard hardly left his side.

Some of his teammates frequented too, Spock especially; who Leonard had almost entirely changed his opinion of. He had grown to accept Spock’s inherent strangeness and found that beneath the surface Spock cared a lot more than he was able to express.

Spock had placed it upon himself to keep Jim completely on track with his studies, and had been an extremely patient teacher.

More often than not it was the three of them in that hospital room. Leonard and Spock often bickered over trivial matters because Spock managed to vex Leonard beyond belief. This was funny because Leonard had spent almost a year trying to get a conversation going with him, now he just wanted Spock to shut up.

One time Leonard had been very close to pulling the bangs right off Spock’s face, and only stopped himself when he saw the serene expression on Jim’s face as he listened to the two of them bicker on.

Jim enjoyed their company regardless of what they were doing, but he thrived on the feeling that there were people who cared about him so much that they would fight about him. If Leonard hadn’t known Jim better he’d have written it off as arrogance. Now he felt this was something else entirely.

Mostly, Leonard was thankful that Jim didn’t try to carry the burden of his injury all by himself. Sure, true to his character Jim had his days where he pretended to be fine when he really wasn’t. But Jim never pushed them away, never pretended to be aloof for the sake of carrying his grief alone.

Leonard doubted if he could ever be _that_ strong.

When Leonard entered Jim’s room he was still brooding over Pike’s words.

Jim was in his bed, legs still in a cast and a tray on his lap with about a dozen pudding cups.

In the room with him was Christine Chapel. She was a nurse in training and had grown fond of Jim during her internship at the hospital. She often smuggled him desserts after breaks, fruit cups and yoghurts and, Jim’s favorite, pudding.

“Are you having one of your dessert binges again?” Leonard said when he walked up to the bed. He attempted to look disapproving.

Jim took the spoon he was sucking on from his mouth. “Christine and I prefer to call them pudding _parties_ ,” he said. Then he gestured to the remaining cups on his tray in front of him. “We have banana, chocolate and butterscotch. Go ahead, take one.”

Jim shoved a banana pudding and a plastic spoon in Leonard’s hand.

“You can have three, because I like you,” Jim continued and he handed the remaining banana flavored pudding cups to Leonard with a beaming smile.

Leonard raised an eyebrow at Jim who kept smiling innocently. He put the cups back and grabbed a chocolate cup instead. “You’re not going to eat all of these,” he said, looking at the nine cups still on the tray.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let him,” Chapel said sternly. “He’s supposed to ration them for the weekend.”

Jim turned so he could look at Chapel and shook his fist. “Traitor! No cups for you.”

“I don’t get high on my own supply,” Chapel joked back, then she stood up from her chair. “My break’s over.”

She picked a pudding cup from Jim’s tray and winked. “Just one for the road. See you later, Jim.”

Jim winked back. “See you later Chris. Bring me more food next time.”

“Absolutely not,” Leonard interjected.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Chapel said with a smile before she left the room, leaving Jim and Leonard.

“How’ve you been,” Leonard asked, moving the pudding cups to the nightstand.

“Oh, y’ know,” Jim said with a drawl. “Just lyin’ around.”

Leonard smirked. Whenever Jim tried to diffuse his pain with humor he felt like Jim was getting one step closer to getting back to normal.

“Well how about we go _sit_ around?”

“ _Oooh_ , tell me more.”

The hospital provided Jim with an adjustable wheelchair so he could move around the hospital once in a while. When the weather was nice it meant Jim could even go outside, which was always a welcome change of scenery. Leonard loved the hospital like a second home but he knew there weren’t many people who shared that sentiment.

“Leonard you know people in the hospital,” Jim said as they walked around the park at the back of the hospital. He licked his lips, much to Leonard’s chagrin Jim had insisted on taking two more pudding cups with him for the road. “Can’t you hook me up with a motorized wheelchair. Scotty could rev it up for me.” 

“Yeah, we’re not doing that.”

Jim laughed.

They walked up to the fountain at the back of the hospital where they usually sat at the bench to watch old people. Jim liked to pretend they were racing one another whenever they happened to walk into their field of vision at roughly the same time. Today Jim was quiet though, watching the water in front of him and in deep thought. Jim always forgot to keep smiling when he was thinking.

“Hey Jim,” Leonard said.

Jim hummed in response to show that he was listening.

“I spoke to Pike today,” Leonard said. “He managed to convince the board to grant you a partial academic scholarship. He said if you maintain your grades, you’re going to be able to keep it till you graduate.”

For a second Leonard thought Jim was going to cry. His eyes turned glassy and he swallowed and blinked the tears back. When he opened his mouth he said with a shaking voice: “Well, you did tell me he’d come through.”

>>>11<<<

Initially, the football team was planning to surprise Jim when he moved back into his dorm room. It was only after Jim had insisted that he wanted to have a quiet first day back home that they had ultimately called it off.

They were only a couple of days away from the UCA championships, but Leonard and Uhura went to Spock’s place right after training and waited for Spock who was picking Jim up.

Spock had to help Jim out of the car and get him his walking cane, but Leonard still loved the sight of Jim coming up to the house without a wheelchair.

It was slow and a little unsteady but Jim could use his own legs again. Spock was right next to Jim, watching him with Jim’s bags in his hands. Leonard wasn’t even worried with Jim’s slightly unsteady gait; he knew that if Jim stumbled Spock would catch him without fail.

When he made it to the front porch Uhura came up to Jim, kissed him twice, and hugged him as tight as she thought would still be comfortable. “Welcome home,” she said, her voice a little shaky.

“It’s good to be home,” Jim replied and looked over Uhura’s shoulder at Leonard who had taken the bags Spock was carrying. When Uhura let go of Jim she intertwined her hand with Spock’s and stood next to him by the porch.

“Leonard can carry your stuff upstairs,” she said, without looking at Leonard.

With Jim leading they made their way upstairs, to Jim’s old room. Leonard had been there a couple of times when Jim was in the hospital, to get Jim books or clothes if he needed them. Now he was there again with Jim, something that hadn’t happened in months, and it felt odd.

When he got to his room Jim hunched over a little more on his cane, the walking up the stairs more exerting than he thought it would be.

“You alright?” Leonard asked, concerned.

“I’m fine,” Jim said. “Could you get me some water?”

“Sure.”

Leonard grabbed a tumbler from the top of Jim’s mini-fridge and walked to the bathroom across the hall. The time he’d spent there drunk and on his knees felt so long ago now, Leonard could hardly believe it’d happened.

It had happened; it was one of the many mistakes in Leonard’s life he did not come to regret.

He walked back to Jim’s bedroom with that thought still in his mind, and did not expect Jim to stand in the middle of the room on his very own without a cane. Leonard was so surprised he almost let the glass of water slip through his fingers.

Jim seeing Leonard’s expression bit the bottom of his lip. “I wanted to surprise you.”

Leonard put down the glass and pulled Jim against him. “That’s amazing, Jim.”

Jim sighed, in relief and weariness. Leonard felt how he was leaning a bit of his weight on Leonard so he could stay upright, and Leonard made sure not to let him go. When Jim pulled back to look at Leonard they were still holding tight to each other.

“I’ve been meaning to thank you for a long time,” Jim said, his voice low.  

“Why?” Leonard asked.

“Because, after the accident I felt like my life was falling apart,” Jim said. “And I think you saved it, in a way.”

“You saved your own life, Jim.”

Jim scowled. For a second Leonard thought he was angry but his voice revealed otherwise. “That’s not true, Bones. Don’t say that. I’m the one who fucked it u—” he stopped himself midsentence.

“I understand if you don’t want to,” Jim tried again. “But could you maybe stay here tonight?”

Leonard didn’t have to hesitate for a second. “Of course, Jim.”

Leonard was sure Uhura (and perhaps Spock as well) took the hint when neither of them came back downstairs.

Together they got ready to go to bed. Getting dressed was still difficult for Jim but Leonard was patient. Jim looked a lot more broken underneath his clothes; the marks of the accident hadn’t left his skin.

Most prominent was the line of stitches going over his knee from his patella surgery, but there were more: the singular stitches where they’d put in the pins and metal plates to put his leg back together, the marks of old wounds. Those were the scars which would always remain.

When Leonard was done helping Jim to the bed he pulled off his own clothes and joined him.

“I still have some of your clothes. If you want to take a shower in the morning,” Jim said, so tired he was already lulling to sleep. “Never got rid of them.”

Leonard moved a little closer to Jim. “Thanks,” he muttered before closing his own eyes. Leonard hadn’t felt tired, but drifted into a deep sleep almost as quickly as Jim. 

When Leonard woke up the next morning a pair of bright blue eyes was staring at him.

“Good morning,” he said groggily, his voice still a little rough.

“Morning, Bones,” Jim replied.

When Jim kissed him it wasn’t a particularly earthshattering moment. Leonard wasn’t surprised, happy yes, but not surprised.

He shifted even closer to Jim and sighed, breathed in his scent and felt months of tension wash away. He turned so he could kiss Jim again and when he did he came to a monumental realization.

He hoped that from the way he kissed Jim that he could somehow tell what it was.

>>>12<<<

Leonard McCoy never believed in fate; he believed in hard work and dedication. So he wasn’t grateful when they drove home with the UCA Championship trophy in the bus with them. His teammates deserved it, every single one of them. Leonard had never felt so proud.

Leonard had some serious jitters before the competition. A condition which worsened with every day the championships neared and every time he talked to Uhura, who was making him nervous by acting like she wasn’t nervous at all.

The only moments of rest he found were at night, in Jim’s double bed. Leonard had stayed that night, and all the nights that followed. They never discussed it, but if Jim thought Leonard was doing him a favor by sleeping next to him he couldn’t be more wrong.

Leonard increasingly felt the need to be close to Jim. He wanted to hear him breathe and be able to brush his fingers slowly up and down his sternum with the rise and fall of his chest and the faint beating of his heart.

But he knew he wasn’t getting used to it, he was saying goodbye. He’d gotten accepted to both Ole Miss and Maryland, which meant that this was officially his last year in San Francisco.

Jim knew as much, trying to get accepted at Ole Miss was the only thing Leonard ever talked about before the accident, before everything. Jim even knew about Boyce’s offer, how Leonard was welcome to stay as a resident if he wanted to, even if they couldn’t offer Leonard as much as the other places could.

Still, Jim never brought it up again, so Leonard didn’t either. For now, Jim was fine with them pretending, and Leonard was fine with it too. 

Jim hated the fact that he wasn’t able to watch the team in Florida, but Leonard was adamant he’d stay on campus so he wouldn’t miss a single day of rehabilitative therapy.

“You can watch it on ESPN,” he’d told Jim standoffishly.

He’d regretted it when they were on the stage for their final performance. Secretly he wished Jim had been there in the crowd, cheering _him_ on for a change.

Jim was the first person Leonard called after they won first place. He’d left Uhura to speak to the reporters and ran to the hallway with clammy hands and the adrenalin still pumping through his veins. Jim hadn’t even let the phone ring twice, picked up and asked: “First place?”

Leonard chuckled. “First place, Jim,” he repeated, trying to contain his excitement. Something Jim, who was cheering through the phone, wasn’t doing.

“I wish I could’ve been there with you, Bones,” Jim said when he’d quieted down.

Leonard smiled.  “Yeah, me too.”

After winning the trophy it still took them a good two days to get home and the entire team was dead-tired by the time they arrived at campus.

They decided to celebrate their victory the next day, after well-earned rest and a good night’s sleep.

Uhura and Leonard stayed behind until all their teammates were ready to go home. When everyone had left the both of them went to Spock’s dorm.

Spock was sitting on a bench at the front porch reading a book but stood up when he saw Uhura and Leonard approaching.

“I believe congratulations are in order,” he said, already having heard the news from Uhura.

“Yeah, thanks.” Leonard said, but didn’t want to linger too long. Uhura had seated herself sideways on the bench and Spock sat down again so she could place her feet on his lap. “Is Jim in?”

“He is in the kitchen,” Spock said.

Jim was sitting on a bar stool in the kitchen with a bowl of grapes and a phone in his hand. When he saw Leonard he looked surprised. “I was just texting you,” he said, holding his phone up as evidence.

“What were you texting?” Leonard asked, leaning forward to try to read the words on the screen.

“I was asking you when you were getting back,” Jim said.

Leonard pulled up another stool and sat next to Jim. “So I saved you a couple of cents just now,” he said, pulling a couple of grapes off with his thumb and index finger.

Jim looked at Leonard and grinned. “Guess so.”

Leonard smirked back, leaned towards Jim and kissed him. Jim dropped his phone on the counter so he could wrap his arms around Leonard and kiss him back. When Jim broke it he kept his face so close to Leonard’s their lips brushed each other when they talked.

“I missed you,” he confessed.

“Missed you too, kid,” Leonard said, pecking Jim on the lips one more time.

“Are you staying tonight?”

“Yeah, I’m stayin’.”

They ordered Chinese food and retreated to Jim’s bedroom. There they fell asleep watching recaps of the UCA championships on Jim’s laptop.

When Leonard woke up the next day, he had cradled himself in the nook of Jim’s arm and they were still wearing their clothes from the day before. He turned his neck a little and saw the light from outside. Realizing it was morning already he moved to sit up but Jim grabbed for his arm to pull him back down.

“Jim,” Leonard said. “We should get up.”

“No,” Jim groaned. “Let’s stay in today.”

“You won’t sleep tonight,” Leonard said, but he still pulled off his shirt and pants and lowered himself back on the bed. Jim moved closer so he could rest his head on Leonard’s chest, just over his heart, Jim’s stubble scratching at his skin. From the sound of it, Jim had fallen asleep just as quickly as he had woken up and Leonard stayed perfectly still to make sure he wouldn’t wake up again.

Jim still spent most of his days sleeping, his body still using up all his energy to mend itself.

Leonard woke up a couple of times, in the afternoon he made breakfast for the both of them and after eating it they just crawled back into bed together. Leonard felt so tired, he probably could’ve slept for another day more, but they were both roused when someone knocked on the door.

Despite Jim’s protests, Leonard rolled himself out of bed and opened it. Uhura was looking at him, showered, dressed and wide-awake.

“Are you two done hibernating?” she teased.

Leonard gave her a half-assed scowl and stretched out. “What time is it?” he asked.

“Ten past six. You have about twenty-five minutes before we leave,” Uhura said. She leaned forward so she could glance into the room. “The same goes for you, Jim.”

Jim didn’t stir but he gave a weak thumbs-up to show that he’d heard.

“Twenty-five minutes,” Uhura repeated before going downstairs.

Leonard kept the door open and trudged towards the closet to grab some clothes.

“You take a shower first,” Jim said, his face still buried in his pillow. “I still need ten more minutes.”

They were fully dressed and downstairs in just under twenty minutes and Spock drove the four of them to the restaurant, where a number of the cheer team was already seated.

“The captains are here,” Gaila announced and the people at the table cheered. From the looks of it some of them had already been drinking for a while.

The four of them sat down at one end of the table, ordered their drinks and bantered away while more team members joined them one by one. Fifteen minutes later everyone was present and they ordered their food.

They listened closely while Leonard told them about his residency next year, most importantly about his first choice: Ole Miss.

After their food came, the team incessantly demanded Uhura to stand up and make a speech so she took her glass and held it up high.

“Raise your glass,” she said, and everyone did. “To America’s greatest cheer team.”

The people at the table cheered before letting Uhura continue. “And let us drink to the greatest captain a team could ever wish for.” She looked at Leonard and gave him a smile so fond it turned Leonard’s cheeks red. “Tonight we say goodbye to fellow cheerleader and co-captain Leonard McCoy. Whose tenacious attitude and cantankerous personality harbored the kindest heart I’ll ever know.” Everyone was looking at him now, and Jim rubbed his hand on the back of Leonard’s neck because he wasn’t meeting anyone’s eyes.

“Aw, he’s embarrassed,” he heard Carol say.

“Leo,” Uhura said. “Wherever you decide to go next year, know that we’ll miss you.”

M’Benga stood up with a bright red photo album in his hand and gave it to Uhura.

“To make sure you don’t forget about us,” she explained before handing it to Leonard.

Leonard flipped to the first page. He immediately recognized Uhura’s graceful handwriting.

“ _To Our Favorite Curmudgeon_ ,” he read out loud, and for good measure he looked at his team with narrowed eyes before flipping through the pages.

The album was filled with pictures of his last year as co-captain but weren’t just ones they’d made on the field. There was one of him in the hospital in his scrubs, and a number of him during class.

All the pictures were surrounded by snarky comments scribbled in the sidelines by his teammates. In one of the pictures he was leaning down to tie his shoes before practice and someone (Gaila) had written _Nice Ass_ next to it with a hot pink sharpie.

Most photos were of him and the team; the many parties, practices and game nights they’d spent together. Leonard loved all of them, even though he wondered which of them had been stalking him in the past year to get so many.

Halfway through the album an entire spread was dedicated to their car wash for charity. The largest photo was on the right page. It was of Jim and him. Jim had an arm around Leonard’s shoulder and Leonard was wearing Jim’s sunglasses, they were both soaking wet and laughing.

Still, his favorite was the very last picture in the album, taken two days ago. It was the entire cheer team, Uhura and him standing in the middle holding up their trophy. Above the picture Uhura had written _We Love You Leo_ in large cursive letters and all the other team members had written their own messages on the page and signed it.

Leonard couldn’t make out any of the words, what with the tears welling up in his eyes. “ _Goddammit,”_ he cursed, vigorously trying to blink them back. The team laughed at him, he didn’t mind.

They all toasted to Leonard, and Leonard had to do his damn best to pretend there weren’t a couple of tears falling from his eyes.

After that, dinner was served and they ate together and laughed together.

Just before dessert, Leonard slipped out for a little bit. He sat down at the front of the restaurant to get some fresh air.

“Do you mind company?”

Leonard turned to see Jim standing on the porch, cane in hand.

“Not at all,” Leonard said.

Jim slowly and with a grunt sat down next to Leonard. “This tiredness is really getting old,” he complained.

“It’ll get better in time,” Leonard said.

“I know,” Jim replied. “I’m just impatient.”

They sat next to each other in silence for a bit, closely side by side, while Leonard listened fondly to the faint noise of his teammates laughing and talking back inside.

“You know,” Jim said suddenly. “I’m really selfish Bones.”

“What, why?” Leonard asked, taken aback. Jim shook his head and sighed but Leonard wouldn’t have it.

“Jim, what are you talking about,” Leonard asked.

“When I heard you talking in there about Ole Miss I just thought for a second that I really—.” Jim paused again, he twisted the cane in his hands. “I want you to take Boyce’s offer. Not because it’s a great opportunity but because it’s here, because it’s close.” Jim said. “I don’t want you to be happy in Mississippi or Maryland. I want you to be happy here, with me.”

Jim looked at Leonard, expecting him to say something, but Leonard wasn’t ready to say anything just yet.

“Don’t look at me like that, Bones,” Jim said, a little distressed. “I know what I sound like.”

“All right,” Leonard said.

“Say what now?” Jim said, confused.

“All right,” Leonard repeated.

Jim made an exasperated noise. “What does that even mean, Bones? I mean, I’m pouring my heart out and you –”

Leonard pinched Jim’s cheek to shut him up. “It means I’ll stay,” he explained.

There wasn’t all that much space left between them in the first place but Jim quickly closed it by kissing Leonard so eagerly their teeth clicked. Leonard didn’t appreciate that, but forgot to protest when the kiss made a turn for the better and he got really into it until Jim suddenly pulled back.

“You know you could’ve just said that,” Jim said with a scowl.

Leonard scowled back. “But I _said_ —”

“You said, _all right_. That’s like the most cryptic bullshit I’ve ever heard.”

Leonard scoffed. “Oh, you’re one to talk. _I’m really selfish_ ,” he said in a mocking tone.

Jim tried to keep his scowl but quickly gave up when he saw the faint smile on Leonard’s face.  He kissed the side of Leonard’s mouth and grinned.

“Let’s go back inside,” Jim said.

“Already?” Leonard replied. He pecked a quick kiss on Jim’s left brow.

Jim hummed in appreciation. “My back’s killing me out here,” he said. “Besides now that you’re staying we’re going to have loads of time where it’ll just be the two of us. We could move out, rent an apartment by the sea.”

Leonard let out a short laugh. “I’m knee deep in debt, Jim,” he said. “And I hate the ocean.”

Jim gave Leonard an incredulous look. “What, who hates the ocean? You are so _weird_.”

Leonard stood up and helped Jim up as well. “Get used to it.”

“Oh, I will, Bones,” Jim said. Leonard handed Jim his cane but Jim craned his arm tightly around Leonard’s instead. Leonard rolled his eyes but held Jim tight as they walked back inside.

Leonard was a captain for one more day and he was damn well going to enjoy it.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Ah. The thing I've been writing that I should not have been writing....
> 
> Some quick notes:  
> 1\. never told explicitly Leonard is 26.  
> 2\. that makes Jim 20 years old. he majors in engineering. So is Montgomery Scott. He's still not in the AV club.  
> 3\. Chekov is not in this story but I figured he'd be the college mascot, but he had no place with the team or god-forbid the cheerleaders.  
> 4\. Though never mentioned the cheer team does have an official choreographer, because, well, duh. 
> 
> Having said that, I hope you've had a bit of a laugh. Or enjoyed the (melo)drama. 
> 
> If you see a mistake, please notify me and I will fix it. If you do not see a mistake and enjoyed the story feel free to tell me as well of course.


End file.
